Pair that calibration data with parts inflation that's climbing unevenly across materials, and the takeaway for shop owners is clear: every estimate is getting more complex and more expensive to manage, and the operational decisions you've been putting off are getting more expensive to ignore.

Here's what the report actually says, and where the numbers should change how you run your bay.

The calibration curve, in three data points

Enlyte's report — built on estimating data from Mitchell, an Enlyte company — tracks three figures that, taken together, tell the whole story.

First, penetration. ADAS calibrations now appear on 34.7% of repair estimates, up from just 12.1% in 2022. That's more than double in three years. Calibration has crossed the line from edge case to routine; if you're seeing it on roughly a third of the cars coming through, it's no longer a specialty add-on you can treat as someone else's problem.

Second, growth rate. The share of estimates carrying a calibration line grew 31.4% year-over-year in 2025, and the number of calibrations performed per repair rose nearly 10% over 2024. So it's not just that more cars need calibration — the cars that need it are needing more of it, as vehicles stack front radar, forward cameras, blind-spot sensors, and 360-degree systems onto the same repair.

Third, cost. When a calibration is present, it runs an average of $688 per estimate. On a third of your jobs, that's $688 of work that either flows through your own P&L or gets handed to a sublet partner — every single time.

The report is also blunt about why this matters beyond the dollar figure: ADAS components are sensitive to alignment, mounting, and even minor changes in body dimensions. A missed or incomplete calibration creates real financial and liability exposure — for the insurer and for the shop that signed off on the repair.

Parts inflation, split by material

The second force reshaping the estimate is parts pricing, and the report's most useful insight is that inflation isn't hitting evenly.

OEM parts inflated 4.21% in 2025, up from 3.52% in 2024. Aftermarket parts rose 3.89%, up from 3.08%. But underneath those blended numbers is a split worth watching: plastic components — bumper covers, headlamps — are climbing faster than sheet metal like hoods and doors. Enlyte attributes the gap to plastic parts' heavier reliance on globally sourced materials, and notes plastics are projected to grow as a share of vehicle composition through 2030.

Tariffs are part of the math. The report notes that while the Supreme Court nullified tariffs levied under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, Section 232 auto tariffs on whole vehicles, parts, and key raw materials remain in place — leaving manufacturers looking to recover those costs. The report's expectation is plain: parts pricing is likely to keep rising for the foreseeable future.

For your estimates, that means the parts side of the ticket is becoming less predictable at exactly the moment the labor-and-diagnostic side is becoming more complex. You're managing more cost variability on both ends of the same job.

One number moving in your favor

Not every trend in the report points up. After more than a decade of decline, the percentage of parts repaired rather than replaced ticked up to 15.5% in 2025, from 14.8% in 2024 — the first reversal in over ten years.

The reason is one every owner will recognize: control. Enlyte's data shows keys-to-keys cycle time on drivable repairs under $5,000 in severity ran about eight-tenths of a day faster when the estimate included at least one repair line, because the work stays in-house instead of waiting on external parts fulfillment. When you don't have to wait on a supply chain you don't control, the car moves.

That's the same logic that's about to apply to calibration.

What it means for your shop: the in-house vs. sublet math just shifted

Here's where the report stops being industry trivia and starts being a business decision.

When calibration appeared on 12% of estimates, subletting it was defensible. The volume was low, the disruption to your schedule was minimal, and standing up your own calibration capability was hard to justify. At 34.7% and climbing, that calculus inverts.

Run the rough numbers for your own shop. Take your monthly repair volume, multiply by roughly a third, and that's how many calibrations are flowing through your bays. At an average of $688 each, the annual figure adds up fast — and right now, a large share of that may be leaving the building to a sublet partner, along with the margin and the schedule control that come with it.

The same eight-tenths-of-a-day cycle-time logic the report flags for in-house repair lines applies directly to calibration. Every calibration you sublet is a car that leaves your control, sits in someone else's queue, and comes back on someone else's timeline — while your customer waits and your cycle-time metrics absorb the delay. Bringing it in-house keeps the work, the margin, and the schedule under your roof.

That doesn't mean every shop should pull calibration in-house tomorrow. It means the threshold question has changed. The honest exercise is to put real numbers against it: your calibration volume, your current sublet spend, the equipment and training investment, and the cycle-time and margin you'd recapture. At today's penetration rates, more shops clear that bar than did even a year ago — and the curve says next year more will still.

Where this leaves you

Enlyte's report is a snapshot of an industry getting structurally more complex. Calibration is on a third of estimates and rising. Parts cost more and behave less predictably. The work, the liability, and the cost are all moving toward the calibration bay — and the only real question for an owner is whether that work happens under your roof or someone else's.

The shops that win the next few years are the ones running the math now, while the trend is still climbing, instead of reacting to it after it's peaked.